So, I’m going to be the big 50 in a couple of short years. In a nutshell, the aches and pains are just becoming a real pain in the @$$. I’ve worked out regularly since I was about 20. I guess 25+ years of hard weight training and cardio are racking up the mileage.
I find myself working out smarter instead of harder, but even now, that is starting to become a chore. So far, I have just been dealing with it. I don’t want to blow out my liver by downing Ranger candy (Ibuprofen-Tylenol) every day… So…
Other than the usual regiment of glucosamine and fish oil, any ideas? What are my fellow old dogs doing?
I find it more difficult to run every year. I am going to buy an elliptical trainer this year.
As for the weights… I can still hold my own against most 20-somethings, but I am losing interest because of the joint pains… As far as running… Forget it. The knees and back won’t let me do this more than about twice a week. Thus the elliptical trainer. I can kick @$$ on that.
I could train hard, and burn out in another year or two, or I can try to train smarter and keep giving the 20-somethings a good run until I am 60+. I’m just not ready to throw in the towel yet.
In my late forties, I’m into low speed high drag lately myself.
I take aspirin for the pains. I’m not into this hi tech shit. Ibuprofen may as well be sugar pills. It does nothing for me. I save my liver for adult beverages.
I can keep my walking skills up by doing it. Running I’m afraid is a sprint only scenario for me anymore.
As far as any other training, I’m looking into that right now, so I’m curious too.
I’m a little younger than you guys at 34 but how about mountain biking. I ride with a bunch of guys that are over 50 even some that are into there late sixties.
It doesn’t have to be hard core mountain biking maybe start with some light trail riding eventually working your way up to harder trails.
Swimming too is a great workout that burns a lot of calories that is also low impact.
You are on the right track regarding training smarter. I’m 42 and have been lifting and have been involved in sports since I was 13.
The biggest training change I’ve made as I’ve gotten older is to warm-up properly before pushing my body to the red line. My body is not like it was when I in my late teens and early twenties. At those ages I never really warmed-up before going full bore.
Another thing I do is avoid movements that aggravate any of my old injuries. I don’t like it but I no longer do heavy cleans because an old elbow injury starts causing me a lot pain when I get into the catch position. I also listen to my body more and pay closer attention to the difference between the pain of training and the pain injury.
Lastly I’ve added core and flexibility training that I completely ignored when I was younger. I do several power yoga sessions a week to stay limber. I really believe Yoga has helped make my body more resilient and less prone to injury from my other more intense activities.
In regards to supplements I also use Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM for my joints I also take a daily vitamin along with Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey and Creatine. Those things seem to keep me going…
With that said I still train hard and heavy but not as often as used too. I used lift 5 times a week and now I found 3 times to work just as well while allowing better recovery between sessions. I really like Jim Wendler’s 531 program. It lets me train hard and keep improving without beating me down. In between lifting sessions I throw in my meta-cons and other conditioning training. All I know is that I have to keep on doing it and the less injuries I have the longer I can live an active lifestyle and keep giving the young bucks a run for their money.
For pain, I’ve found out that Alieve or Tylenol are the only two things that work, but I try not to take them more than a few times a week. Doc brings up a good point about the liver being for adult beverages.
I try to throw in the mountain bike once every week or two, but where I live, there are no mountains and it’s super hot outside.
Looks like my supps are on par with Yojimbo’s. Those are the only things that work for me. Add about one gallon of water a day to keep the body flushed out.
I have not tried Yoga, but I have gotten myself onto a serious stretching routine before every workout to loosen/warm-up. The stretching has helped immensely, but I am now hitting the limits of that too.
With this, I have never heard of that 5/3/1 workout. Looks like I have some reading to do. Good intel. Thanks!
I am 41 and lately I have been wracking up the injuries. The first thing I would recommend is slow down. Do not over train. There is simply no getting around it, you do not heal as fast as you use to.
Try a regiment of L-Arginine and L-Lysine. Arginine in the day, and Lysine right before bed. This will help increase the natural level of HGH that your body produces.
Get plenty of sleep, and take naps if possible. Your body releases the most HGH during sleep and mostly only during deep NREM sleep. Try L-Tryptophan to improve the quality of your sleep.
You may want to look into male hormone replacement therapy but be advised that their is a lot of quackery in this field and it is not without side effects. I would recommend that if you get on steroids, work with an MD and cycle on and off them in the same way a bodybuilder would.
Definitely try Yoga - in particular Bikram Yoga. It will do wonders for your joints and improve your flexibility which is one of the first things to go as you age.
Ever think of going to an “Anti Aging” Clinic? GH and Test replacement therapy can do wonders.
As for your running are there any sports therapy clinics near you that offer a RunSmart (or similar) program. After my LOD injury I went back to the clinic I had therapy at to be fully evaluated and had my running videotaped and gone over. PT offered training solutions and pt exises to keep me fit and correct defficientcies/correct running gait. It really helped.
I am 47 and in the best shape of my life. At 43, I was a fatty.
First thing I did was fix my diet. I eat less food overall, and more vegetables now than I ever had. I take a multivitamin, but just keep the hell away from all the supplements. They are expensive, and noone really knows what they will do to you long term. Plus, I find out I outperform my supplement-taking peers.
Second thing, I upped the amount of exercise I do, and the intensity, but dialed way down on weights. I do between 45-60 min of cardio 6 times a week, and high intensity, high rep weight work four times a week. Basically, I hit each body part twice a week. Abs I hit 6 times a week as well.
I’ve ditched running almost entirely. Even elliptical will screw up your knees, you need to be sure your knees are not going over your toes when you do it.
I’m doing all this with a partially disassociated leg, which was put back in place, but never repaired all the way, a broken L5 vertebrate, which went untreated and stress and green fractures all of which never were treated. Frankly, I’ve learned to block/ignore the pain. And having a strong gut fixed most of my aches and pains.
For the last couple of years, I’ve been fighting the lower back pain, due to an arthritic scoliosis (revealed in x-rays), brought about from years of various activities. I’ve managed the pain by using heat in the morning, ice in the afternoon, after work (landscaping). Take 500 mg Naproxen, before work, and another at lunch. This has really helped, and I don’t suffer from those tooth ache like pains in the right buttock, due to the sciatic.
Now that I’m over fifty (55), I prefer to operate like a well tuned four cylinder, than a V8 pulling a trailer. I don’t ever want to buy a Rascal.
I guit playing hockey about 7 years ago and the weight just ballooned. I was playing 4 days a week and lifting so the weight stayed off, but when I stopped it was Katey bar the door. I went from 210 to 170 a couple of years ago, and then put on about 15 pounds a year later due to the retriever training I was doing last year. Training 6 dogs to duck hunt and having a full time job leaves little room for body work. Since November I’ve gotten into running 2-5 miles a day and lifting. The metabolism finally kicked in and I’ve lost 10 pounds because I keep my heart rate high during weights and then around 162 or so during the runs. I’m 54.
I have been using Mineral Ice on the knees and it helps at night but I can’t cart that around during the day. The right knee which is the good one hurts like hell at times and cycling just makes it worse. Gotta live it I guess because I don’t want to go back to being a fat ass.
Turned 52 today. I’ve been cycling since high school and lifting religiously since I was 16. My current regimen is weights every morning at 0600, Monday thru Friday, and cycling 4 days a week, about 150 miles total, less during the winter, of course, as I can’t get in decent rides after work when it’d dark at 1630.
I ruptured L5/S1 about 8 years ago but luckily had no sciatic involvement. Tore both my rotator cuffs and had surgery on them in 2004. Due to my dogged insistence on heavy shoulder work, I’ve torn the left RC again, but it doesn’t hurt so I won’t do the surgery again. All the surrounding muscles seem to do a good job supporting things. After I ruptured the disc I started taking a naproxen sodium 650 mg in the morning when I get up, but long term I think that’s bad for the liver and blood pressure.
A few months ago I read about turmeric (curcumin) as a natural anti inflammatory. I’ve been taking one triple strength (900 mg) curcumin capsule in the morning before I head to the gym and it works wonders for joint pain. My shoulders basically feel great.
Old is relative. One of my gym mates turned 70 earlier this year and did a 70 mile ride on his birthday. Just don’t ever stop…although admittedly it takes a lot longer to recover than it did 25 years ago…
Sounds like I need to look into this turmeric. I have an old back injury too, but have saved the rest of my joints so far. My goal here is to keep on trucking without blowing anything out. I am having to be more careful as every year goes on.
Since I started this thread, I have doubled my glucosimine intake, and have gotten serious into stretching again before working out. Seems to be helping. I’ll be taking whey protein and creatine forever…
My goal is to keep going like that 70 year old guy that you mentioned.
Most of my weights are high rep, low weight these days. Exceptions are back exercises that don’t stress the lower back and shoulder exercises exclusive of presses. I do heavy ab work-weighted Roman chair sit ups (which strangely don’t bother my lower back), weighted 90 degree leg raises, and flag leg raises (or as I like to call them, Bruce Lee leg raises) with a dumbbell between my feet. Heavy weight, low reps is a big time saver vs hundreds of crunches. My very strong core no doubt helps with the lower back. Also planks on a balance ball-that can be an ass kicker. I quit taking glucosamine/condroitin but I should get back on that. And yeah, protein powder and creatine are staples in my diet.
I started scuba diving last year and that’s my present obsession. It’s not as much exercise as I’d like it to be unless I just swim the wall at the quarry, but it’s very zen and a pleasant change from the same old same old.
Lower back pain. Hurt my lower back on a jump. I think I landed on a slope and one foot hit before the other and my PLF was all jacked up. It sort of jammed my hip up and at a bad angle. I limped around like this for a while then went to see our Bn Surgeon (and Army PA). He was working on getting certified on doing acupuncture so he was always looking for test subjects. After about 5 treatment over a few weeks and a some regular PT the pain went away.
I felt immediately better during and after the treatment. The pain would slowly creep back after a few hours but was much less than before. After every treatment things got progressively better.
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Work out every day. It is more about consistency and discipline than specifics.
Even bad days I find a min of 30 minutes to do sit ups,push-ups and stretch.
I manage to get to the gym twice a week and ride a bicycle twice a week and seem to do ok. I do get aches and pains, but at 67 I expect it. Just keep going and you will not regret it.
Started a walking regimen with DH and the kids and dogs recently. Trying for 2mi a day, and a bit more on weekends. With the TX summer heat, that is pushing it, even with heavy fluid consumption via camelbak. The kids are good for about 2mi (9 is oldest), and the old dog only good for 1 mi before he wears out. (He is 11+ and arthritic, and has a heavy coat in the heat…) Younger dog is good for 3-4 if you push him.
There is a free program in TX, called Walk Across Texas, sponsored by TAMU. Trying to get the 830mi done in a year by myself.